34 



NATURE 



[May 13, 1897 



•rooted in the mind by association of contiguity, and that 

 thus an expectancy was raised for them of such urgency 

 that transfer took place as occasion ofifered. The dis- 

 cussion of this subject takes up the greater part of the 

 paper. (4) Embellishment is finery, which may be sexual, 

 iDcllicose, 1 proud, aggressive, or wanton, and not unfre- 

 quently these articles of embellishment cannot be re- 

 _garded as examples of Fine Art. (5) The works of Fine 

 Art can be sharply differentiated from Ornament. They 

 have an altogether independent existence, and are not 

 subordinate to serial repetition. It is their aim and end 

 to excite a high order of emotion. If we admit that 

 Fine Art exists solely for the purpose of furthering 

 emotion, we may safely conclude that emotional craving 

 originated it. 



"In conclusion," writes Dr. Colley March, "the five 

 elements of Art may be analysed upon an urn. Artifice 

 bas moulded a hollow vessel of earth, and has baked it 

 so that it will hold water. As the gourd was in many 

 cases its model. Expectancy has required its base to be 

 much narrower than strict utility might have provided ; 

 but the ring that was once a stand for it has now become 

 its foot. Artistic treatment has given it outlines that we, 

 or others, call graceful ; has coloured its clay, and washed 

 its surface with a translucent glaze ; and has carried 

 aloft in symmetrical curves those handles that were once 

 of ozier or of cords. 



" Round the foot and shoulder and neck. Expectancy 

 has drawn bands of Ornament, skeuomorphs [designs 

 derived from technical methods of construction in handi- 

 craft] of binding, of basketry, or of textiles ; and a phyllo- 

 morph [or plant-design] is parasitic upon them. Embel- 

 lishment has hung a foolish chain in a festoon between 

 the handles. And Fine Art has filled the middle zone 

 ■with a bas-relief, or a painting, that moves the soul. 

 ' What leaf-fringed legend haunts about thy shape 



Of deities or mortals, or of both, 



In Tempe or the dales of Arcady ? ' 



Thus, revealed upon a vase, we witness not alone the 

 elements of Art, but its history, its psychology, and its 

 evolution." A. C. H. 



ADAM HILGER. 

 T)Y the death of Adam Hilger, which took place on 

 •^ April 23, the physical sciences, and especially 

 astronomical physics, have suffered a loss which cannot 

 be immediately made good. Standing in the front rank 

 of practical opticians, he did much to promote scientific 

 progress along various lines, his thorough scientific train- 

 ing enabling him to undertake optical work of the highest 

 •character. 



Born in Darmstadt, in 1839, he early showed a 

 marked inclination for the mechanical work in which 

 his father was then engaged. For some years he was 

 a mechanical engineer in Darmstadt, and he after- 

 Avards entered Ertel's famous establishment at Munich. 

 He next came to London, but, though commanding 

 a good salary, he found no opportunity of advancing 

 his knowledge, and soon left for Paris, where he had the 

 good fortune to find employment with the firm of Lere- 

 bours and Secretan. During this engagement he con- 

 structed many instruments, under the direct supervision 

 of Foucault, and became fully acquainted with the theory, 

 as well as with the practice, of his art. After the war of 

 1870 he came to London with his family. Here he was 

 engaged with Mr. Browning, at first as a simple work- 

 man, but afterwards as foreman. Having completed a 

 five years' contract, he commenced business on his own 

 account at Islington. At these well-equipped works he 

 produced the instruments which have brought him such 

 a high reputation among physicists and astronomers 

 throughout the world. He was especially skilled in 

 NO. 1437, VOL. 56] 



manipulating quartz and Iceland spar for work on the 

 ultra-violet rays, and had lately succeeded in making 

 very perfect achromatic combinations of these materials. 

 The special qualities of the new Jena glasses were also 

 well known to. him, and by their use he produced achro- 

 matic lenses of very short focal length, as well as prisms 

 of very high dispersion. 



We understand that the business will be, in all 

 probability, continued by Mr. Otto Hilger. A. F. 



A NIGHT IN MID-MA V. 



NOW tender eve has kissed the drooping'eyes 

 Of sleeping daisies ; incense floods the air, 

 Bowed Nature kneeling at her vesper prayer ; 

 Mid rustling leaves the pensive night breeze sighs. 

 In heaven's great garden brighter flowers arise ; 

 While throned Arcturus fires the southern skies ; 

 Aglow the coils of Berenice's Hair ; 

 Her wonted path the patient moon makes fair. 

 Calm whisperers I of splendours far away, 

 (Had messages in golden light ye bring — 

 A heart's desire fulfilled one happy day. 

 In perfect love and never ending spring. 

 Where painless pleasure shall no more take wing, 

 Nor spectral winter close the eyes of May. 



M. C. L. 



NOTES. 

 The Bakerian Lecture will be delivered at the Royal Society 

 on Thursday next, May 26, by Prof. Osborne Reynolds, F. R.S., 

 and W. H. Moorby. The subject will be the mechanical 

 equivalent of heat. 



Dr. E. J. Stone, F.R.S., Radcliffe Observer at Oxford, 

 died on Sunday last. Astronomy has thus lost one of its fore- 

 most workers. 



We join in the general expression of regret at the death of 

 the Due d'Aumale, a very distinguished member of the French 

 Academy. He spent a great part of his life in England, and 

 received the honorary D.C.L. at Oxford in 189 1. He fre- 

 quently appeared at the Athenaeum Club, and his interesting 

 personality was therefore known to many who were not his 

 fellow-countrymen. By a deed of gift, executed in 1884, die 

 Due d'Aumale's chateau at Chantilly, and all its precious con- 

 tents, was presented to the Institute of France, in trust for the 

 French nation, subject only to his life interest in the chateau. 

 The Paris correspondent of the Times gives particulars of this 

 splendid gift. By the terms of the bequest Chantilly must pre- 

 serve the character of a museum. The exterior wings are as- 

 signed as lodgings for the three curators, and the museum, 

 under the supervision of the Institute, will be an institution 

 open to the public. Besides this, the Institute, to meet the 

 expense of the preservation of Chantilly, is given the forest, 

 the annual clearings in which produce about 100,000 francs. It 

 also possesses other portions of the estate, which will produce 

 more than the sum necessary for the maintenance of a museum. 

 France will thus always possess a magnificent monument to the 

 memory of one who held national welfare very dear. 



The annual conversazione of the Society of Arts will be held 

 at the South Kensington Museum, on Wednesday, June 16. 



The Yachting and Fisheries Exhibition at the Imperial 

 Institute will be opened by their Royal Highnesses the Prince 

 and Princess of Wales, on Monday, May 17. 



The Lancet states that the Government of India, recognising 

 the arduous and valuable nature of M. Haffkine's recent work 

 in connection with the bubonic plague, has sanctioned the 

 grant of a monthly salary of Rs. 2000 to him instead of the 



